(Robotics is preparing to make its introduction as a high school activity. Photo courtesy of FIRST.)

Make way for the robots, Arizona high schools.

This month, the Arizona Interscholastic Association officially sanctioned a state tournament for robotics, joining 27 other AIA sports activities that already compete for state titles. Robotics isn’t an official AIA activity yet, but it is heading that way.

The interest for robotics is growing at Arizona high schools, where arguably the most celebrated high school robotics program, Phoenix’s Carl Hayden High School, in the nation resides. In 2004, a group of Carl Hayden students along with their instructor, Fredi Lajvardi, put their school on the robotics map and generated community pride after engineering the unthinkable by beating a team from MIT.

The victory by the high school team over a team from the prestigious university inspired a documentary and a movie, Spare Parts. The 2004 Carl Hayden was honored in September during an event in Washington D.C.

The first high school robotics season in Arizona will start during the spring season with two regional events (March 18-21 at Hamilton and April 1-4 at Grand Canyon University). The top 30 teams from the regionals will then advance to the May 23 state tournament at Tim’s Toyota Center in Prescott.

The teams will compete in regional events run by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a non-profit organization that organizes robotic events internationally. Each season FIRST teams are challenged to put together a robot in six weeks that can play a difficult game, which changes every year, on a field inside an arena/gym.

Each team receives the same robot kit, instructions about the game and how the robot must play but no instructions on how to build a robot. That’s where your imagination, hard work and fun begin for the robotics teams. It’s pricey to start a robotics team, but the AIA is working to secure sponsorship deals to help defray the costs for schools that want to start a team but can’t afford to do so. 

If you are interested in supporting the AIA robotics program and state tournament as a corporate partner, please contact AIA Sports Properties at 602-385-3828.   

Here’s more information from FIRST on how to get a robotics team started:

The cost for a rookie team is $6,000 for one event. The team will receive about 150 pounds of parts, (valued at $17,000) and entry in to one regional event. FIRST might be announcing rookie grant opportunities soon.

Payment is due to FIRST on November 24, 2014.

Registration payment and terms:

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/frc-payment-terms

How to start a team:

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/start-an-frc-team

How to register a team:

https://my.usfirst.org/frc/tims/site.lasso

Any member on a FIRST team is eligible to apply for over $20 million in scholarship opportunities: http://www.usfirst.org/aboutus/scholarships

Registration to select the regional event of your choice opens on Sept. 24, 2014. Teams must register first.

2015 Season Pre-Registration: If you haven’t started the pre-registration process, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible. Completing the process now will allow you to register for events quickly when event registration opens this fall! Teams can login to update their team profiles for the 2015 season in TIMS:https://my.usfirst.org/frc/tims/site.lasso, and new rookie teams can also pre-register at this time.